PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, seeking repatriation of all undertrials currently lodged in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir.
The PIL urged immediate judicial intervention to address what she described as a “humanitarian crisis” affecting hundreds of undertrial prisoners from the Union Territory.
The petition seeks the repatriation of all undertrials currently lodged in jails outside J&K, including Agra, Bareilly, Haryana, and other states, back to prisons within the region.
Mehbooba claimed that detention in distant locations violates fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, severely restricting prisoners’ access to courts, legal counsel, and family members.
“These young people are not statistics; they are our children, sons of the soil,” she told mediapersons. “They deserve respect, a fair trial, and the opportunity to rebuild their lives”.
The PIL demands the establishment of a high-level monitoring and grievance redressal committee to audit undertrial records and recommend disciplinary action against errant officials. It also calls for: A standardised protocol ensuring regular family visits and unrestricted lawyer-client meetings, state-funded monthly travel for one family member until the prisoners are returned, and quarterly judicial reviews of exceptional cases where detention outside J&K continues, with written justification from prison authorities.
“Delay in justice is tantamount to denial of justice”, Mehbooba emphasised. “Every delay violates the right to life and liberty under Article 21”. The petition highlights how prolonged separation from home territories has led to delayed trials, proceedings conducted in absentia, and families unable to afford long-distance travel. “For years, hundreds of our youth have been imprisoned far from home,” Mehbooba stated. “Trials are delayed, justice remains out of reach. This is not the idea of justice that our Constitution envisions”.
In a direct appeal to the Chief Justice, Mehbooba said; “Our courts are our last hope. We have faith in our judiciary. I believe the day is not far when justice will be served, and our courts will ensure ‘ghar wapsi’—the return of all prisoners from Jammu and Kashmir to their homeland”.
Slamming the Omar Abdullah government, Mehbooba wrote on X; “We waited hoping that in the past year, since an elected government came into being, the National Conference would take action on the issue of undertrial prisoners lodged in jails outside Jammu & Kashmir. PDP even brought a resolution into the assembly advocating for this cause but unfortunately, it was rejected”.
“After exhausting every other option, the only recourse left was to approach the Hon’ble High Court on behalf of these prisoners languishing in jails alien to their homes & Kashmir”.
“The process itself has become a punishment, as they have yet to be proven guilty. The majority of these undertrials hail from poor families lacking the wherewithal to defend themselves while being so far from their loved ones. I sincerely hope justice prevails,” she added.
She told mediapersons that rapists and murderers were frequently sent out of jail on parole, but these Kashmiri youths, against whom no cases have yet been proved, have been lodged in jails far away from their homes.